Best places to practice near Berkeley

[2>4]

Where are the big, empty, clean, smooth, well-lit parking lots around Berkeley? My friend and I want to go practice some basic riding skills.

I know about the Golden Gate Fields (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=albany,ca&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=37.887674,-122.314053&spn=0.005699,0.010042&t=k&om=1) lot, but the pavement is old, there's some gravel, and that makes me nervous.

Any suggestions?

[Baptistro]

moved

[2>4]

Doh! Not going to stunt on a Ninja 250. That was a (bad) joke.

I will edit the post to make that clear. Could you move this back to the Training forum?

[Baptistro]

moved

Alameda Naval base has tons of open space in which to practice.

[oldapeman]

Early (before 8 AM) weekend mornings are great times to practice. I would take my son for training up strawberry canyon, then over into Tilden Park, and all the way over the hills to San Pablo Dam Road. (Look out for wildlife.) Any later than 8 AM and all the squids and wanna bees are zooming all over the Berkeley Hills, so hold off on that until you are ready to join the crowds.

Saturdays and Sundays at the DMV office on Claremont Avenue is a great place, so long as no one else is there teaching their teenager to drive. You can then ride up Claremeont Avenue and continue up Claremont Canyon.

Berkeley really has few large parking lots that are not in use most of the time. You might have some luck at the North Berkeley Bart Station on weekends, or at night.

[2>4]

Cool! Thanks for the replies. I would not have thought of some of the options mentioned.

[masameet]

How about some parking lots at BART (North Berkeley and El Cerrito), Target or Costco during off-peak hours? To get there, instead of San Pablo Ave. you can ride Arlington Ave., with its gentle rolling hills and few stop signs, or MLK Way to The Alameda to Solano Ave. to Colusa Ave. to Fairmount. These are all great roads to practice stopping, starting and riding, and are not heavily traveled on the weekends. (Well, for sure Solano Ave. and MLK are major thoroughfares but the speeds are low.)

[NsOaklandR6]

Originally posted by oldapeman
Early (before 8 AM) weekend mornings are great times to practice. I would take my son for training up strawberry canyon, then over into Tilden Park, and all the way over the hills to San Pablo Dam Road. (Look out for wildlife.) Any later than 8 AM and all the squids and wanna bees are zooming all over the Berkeley Hills, so hold off on that until you are ready to join the crowds.

Saturdays and Sundays at the DMV office on Claremont Avenue is a great place, so long as no one else is there teaching their teenager to drive. You can then ride up Claremeont Avenue and continue up Claremont Canyon.

Berkeley really has few large parking lots that are not in use most of the time. You might have some luck at the North Berkeley Bart Station on weekends, or at night.

As far as i know CHP (on bikes) use to kick it at that little coffee shop or whatever that is almost right across the street from the Claremont DMV so beware. As far as berkeley goes I can't see anybody stunt-n in any berkeley parking lots especially bart. Bart PD would taser you off of your bike and mase the sh*t out of you.